Chapter 1: What are the latest developments in U.S.-Iranian oil sanctions?
Good morning. Trump and Netanyahu pledge an end to strikes on energy infrastructure. The Washington Post explains the drastic measures being explored to calm a spiraling crisis.
Oil prices are going up higher and higher, and this is becoming a real problem for the economy, and it's a political problem.
The LA Times explains how California is reckoning with a shocking investigation into the late civil rights icon Cesar Chavez. And who is Banksy? Reuters claims to know and tells us how they found out.
It was that beginning curiosity and a tantalizing clue we got at that moment that started us down this path.
It's Friday, March 20th. I'm Cecilia Ley, and this is Apple News Today. After the biggest day of strikes on energy assets since the war began, President Trump spent yesterday trying to reassure markets that the tit-for-tat would not escalate further. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would halt further attacks on a major Iranian gas field at Trump's request.
In a press conference yesterday, he claimed Iran's ability to enrich uranium had been destroyed. Following Trump's complaint over recent Israeli strikes, he presented a united front with an optimistic prediction for the conflict.
I also see this war ending a lot faster than people think. I think in war you have to grit your teeth. And I hope that in time, people will see the wisdom and the courage of President Trump's decision and his leadership and the fact that we're working together.
Stocks and oil prices have been seesawing after mixed signals over the past couple of days. But the pledge of restraint likely reflected recognition that provoking Iran further risked serious disruption of global energy supplies. Concerns appeared high enough that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant revealed the administration was considering a major change in policy.
In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that's on the water. It's about 140 million barrels.
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Chapter 2: How is California reacting to the allegations against Cesar Chavez?
So depending on how you count it, that's 10 days to two weeks of supply that the Iranians had been pushing out. That would have all gone to China. In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign.
If that happened, the Treasury would follow a similar move to temporarily lift sanctioned Russian oil that was already in tankers. Evan Halper is a business reporter with The Washington Post who explained the administration's reasoning.
So one of the things they're trying to do is find every tool they have, and they don't have that many, to bring more oil into the marketplace. And they've done everything they can up to now, and it's not really bringing the price of oil down.
But Halper notes that this strategy is not without risk.
Chapter 3: Who is Banksy and what is the mystery surrounding his identity?
What Iran is trying to do here is create all kinds of economic chaos. And so if that's a big part of their war strategy and they're able to ease some of that economic chaos, even if it means money going into Iran, maybe it's worth it.
But on the flip side, you have a lot of lawmakers, you've got analysts, you've got people in Europe who are questioning, why are we allowing the flow of this oil, the money that comes from the flow of this oil, to go back to these regimes?
European leaders expressed concerns about the cost of energy at a summit yesterday. They are more vulnerable than the U.S. to higher energy costs and asked for a moratorium on strikes aimed at energy facilities.
The reality is that this war keeps escalating, and it's gone from just the Strait being closed and being a problem to now we're seeing all kinds of attacks from Iran on infrastructure in Gulf states, energy infrastructure. And they're basically going after the plumbing of the energy supply. And if that starts to go down, it can take a very long time to repair some of these facilities.
And you're talking about price shocks that are not going to be just temporary.
At the White House, Trump repeated that these current conditions wouldn't last forever.
So I wanted to put out that fire.
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Chapter 4: What investigative methods were used to uncover Banksy's identity?
And I said, you know, if I do that, oil prices will go up. The economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse. Much worse, actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad. And it's going to be over with pretty soon.
CNN has a daily tracker of U.S. gas prices and currently puts the national average at $3.88 per gallon, up 78 cents from this time last year. Trump confirmed he was seeking $200 billion in new Pentagon funding for the war. He was a revered icon of the farm labor movement, a national hero for the Latino community, and he left a legacy that inspired a bust in President Biden's Oval Office.
But now, a New York Times investigation alleging that the late Cesar Chavez sexually abused women and young girls in the 60s and 70s has left his admirers in shock, especially in California, the base of Chavez's movement with the United Farm Workers. Yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom said he was still processing the report.
I think there's three dozen schools in the state named after Cesar Chavez. So we're just going to have to reflect on all of that and reflect on a farm workers movement and a labor movement that was much bigger than one man and celebrate that. And so this is a world we're living in. We're for justice. We're for the truth. We're for transparency. We want to have the backs of our victims.
But it's a sensitive, sensitive moment.
The LA Times reports that the reaction in the state has been swift. Dozens of schools, cities, parks, and libraries are pushing to rapidly strip Chavez's name from their buildings and streets. And yesterday, California lawmakers said they reached a deal to rename the upcoming Cesar Chavez Day to Farm Workers Day.
I have seen very little pushback against this move to strike Cesar's name from all these different places.
Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the LA Times who frequently writes about Latino culture and communities.
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Chapter 5: What ethical questions arise from revealing Banksy's true identity?
I think that speaks to a new generation of activists, but also leaders that know you cannot defend the indefensible. I don't think we would have had the same reaction 20 years ago.
The New York Times spoke to more than 60 people, reporting that Chavez, who died in 1993, sexually abused two underage girls who were the daughters of United Farm Workers organizers in the 1970s. Reporters also spoke to 95-year-old Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the UFW with Chavez. Huerta is a legend in her own right, a feminist icon who created the famous rallying cry, Si Se Puede.
There will be strikes all over the state and throughout the country. because Delano has shown what can be done, and the workers know that they are no longer alone.
That was Huerta giving a speech in 1966. She told the New York Times that she rose to a leadership position in a movement dominated by a sexist machismo culture.
Chapter 6: How has Banksy's anonymity influenced the art world?
In her interview, Huerta described being manipulated and forced into sex with Chavez. She said those encounters resulted in two children, whom she arranged to be cared for by others. This was the first time she revealed these details of her life.
And she said she hid it all because she did not want to be seen as trying to throw a leader of a movement that was just starting under the bus. So it was a sacrifice of the most painful kind. She sacrificed her own mental health, her own everything on behalf of this man. I cannot even imagine holding this pain in. For decades, she is now about to turn 96.
She is in the winter of her life, still as active as ever. And to see that sort of courage be maintained, and she never once gave any hint of it. She was always, and is still always seen as just a super strong icon.
In its investigation, the Times reports they could not independently verify Huerta's claims since she hadn't told anyone about them until very recently. In her statement about the Times story, Huerta said she was sickened to learn that Chavez also hurt young girls and that, quote, Cesar's actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of Banksy's identity on his art and sales?
Arellano notes that there are a lot of questions that will still need to be answered. In particular, who might have known or whether anyone suppressed allegations. In the meantime, those who have long celebrated Chavez as a hero are now confronting a much more complicated legacy.
The victories that they were able to attain were real. They were able to create legislation in California that benefited all farm workers, not just the farm workers unionized by the United Farm Workers. And the leader of the UFW in those years was Cesar Chavez. So the good that he did cannot be wiped away should be acknowledged.
But now we need to, while we tell those stories, we also need to tell the totality of the man, because now especially you cannot remove, you cannot separate the two. It's impossible now.
It's a one-word name that the world has come to know over the past 25 years.
Renowned street artist Banksy has unveiled nine new animal-themed murals. Well, in the case of the famously anonymous Banksy, you pretty much have no choice.
Now, let's tell you a little bit about Banksy. You can likely picture his work in your mind, a girl reaching out for a heart-shaped balloon or a masked man launching a bouquet of flowers like it was a Molotov cocktail. His art is famous, his name is legendary, but his identity? It's been shrouded in mystery. That is, until now.
A new report from Reuters claims to reveal the man behind the spray can. Blake Morrison, an investigative journalist, told me about the journey he and his colleagues took to uncover the real Banksy.
One of our journalists who worked on this, Simon Gardner, was in Ukraine in November of 2022. And Banksy had just been there. And Simon, who's a big Banksy fan, got curious and went there. And he created a photo lineup of people who'd been rumored to be Banksy on his cell phone and started showing it around to some villagers who had met or seen the artist at work.
What followed was a series of shoe-leather reporting exercises, showing photographs to people, checking with immigration officials about who had entered Ukraine, and interviewing someone who had made coffee for two men suspected of being Banksy. Ultimately, though, it was old New York police reports and court documents from 2000 that persuaded the reporters they had enough evidence to publish.
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